Abstract

Rheumatoid Arthritis and Alzheimer Disease: Possible Cellular and Molecular Links

Gianfranco Ferraccioli, Elisa Gremese, Angela Carbonella and Stefano Alivernini

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia of the old population over 85 years. AD pathogenesis is multifactorial and several findings support the neuroinflammatory pathogenetic hypothesis. There is an inverse relationship between AD and Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) due to different factors. Among them, NSAIDs use acting both on amyloid formation and COX enzymes has been supposed to play a protective role on AD risk. Moreover, new insights on colony stimulating factors (GM-CSF, M-CSF and G-CSF) pathways in immune cells differentiation suggested a possible cellular link between AR and the AD onset.